KANBrief 3/24
All too often, people are not conscious of occupational safety and health until they are faced with it in practice: when they pay their company’s accident insurance premiums, when they receive instruction at the workplace on occupational safety and health or, in the worst-case scenario, when accidents or occupational illnesses occur. For occupational safety and health to be made an integral part of workplace culture, the subject must be raised much earlier.
Over 780,000 reportable workplace accidents occurred in Germany in 2023. Although the trend is falling, this is still a high number. The view of the occupational safety and health community is that awareness must be raised of work-related risks and instruction provided in their avoidance whilst future workers are still undergoing vocational training. The preventive combating of accident risks by products and work equipment being made safe by design must also become an integral part of the curriculum. This includes knowledge of technical standardization.
Occupational safety and health is already addressed specifically by some training courses. Graduates of degree courses with terms such as occupational safety, health, occupational health and safety or safety technology in their titles can contribute significantly to making workplaces safe and healthy when they are employed in companies’ OSH departments.
KAN has been involved for many years now in a range of training and degree courses, for example at a number of universities and associations. In doing so, it highlights the importance of standardization for occupational safety and health. Standards form the basis for the design of safe work equipment and are a source of information for companies seeking to source safe and healthy work equipment. The KAN Secretariat has created a repository of knowledge modules and interactive training modules. It offers interested institutions and students the opportunity to present the subject of standardization as a means of prevention, for example as part of a course with between one and four teaching units. Together with the Institute for Work and Health of the DGUV(IAG), KAN also regularly holds its seminar on the principles of standardization work in occupational safety and health (seminar no. 570044, in German). In this seminar, new and experienced OSH experts alike are introduced to the procedures and, above all, the various means that exist for influencing the standardization process.
E-learning provision can be used to good effect both during training and later at work. The German Social Accident Insurance Institutions offer a wide range of materials on the subject of safety and health (in German), geared to specific sectors and activities. DIN and DKE use a range of channels to provide insights into the world of standardization, such as the Young Professionals’ series of conferences on getting started in the sphere.
Initiatives also exist at European level that aim to increase the value accorded to standardization in training. One example is the EDU4Standards project, funded by the European Union, which aims to improve the transfer of knowledge concerning standardization at European universities.
Dr. Michael Thierbach
thierbach@kan.de